Retro Film Review: The Wounds (Rane, 1998)

"May you live in interesting times" is ancient Chinese curse that had affected people and countries of former Yugoslavia with a vengeance. People who lived in those violent and turbulent times didn't just have to cope with war, poverty, crime and complete collapse of social values. Common sense and logic also failed them. The Wounds, 1998 Serbian drama directed by Srđan Dragojević, illustrates this point not only by its content but also with the way it was made. Its production was partially financed by the government of Slobodan Milosević, apparently unconcerned with the film's critical portrayal of 1990s Serbia and even less flattering portrayal of the regime.

Film starts in 1996, when Serbian political parties opposed to Milosević scored major victory on local elections and sparked major political crisis and series of street demonstrations. All that mayhem is of little concern to Pinki (played by Dušan Pekić), young Belgrade teenager who happens to be film's main protagonist and narrator. He remembers events that began five years earlier, when Yugoslavia fell apart and enthusiastic Belgrade crowds cheered tanks on their route to Croatia. Pinki didn't understand that, having his mind preoccupied with sex and good life. The good life is something his father, retired Army officer Stojan (played by Miki Manojlović) couldn't provide. Pinki and his friend Švaba (played by Milan Marić) find much better role model in the form of Kure (played by Dragan Bjelogrlić), small-time criminal who earned local fame through his criminal endeavours in Germany. While Stojan and most ordinary Serbians, affected with crippling UN sanctions, barely make ends meet, Pinki and Švaba join Kure's criminal gang and start earning good money through drug dealing, robberies and murder. Through time their ambitions grow and they dream of taking Kure out, becoming their own bosses and guests of popular television show dedicated to the most legendary Belgrade criminals.

Just like Pretty Village, Pretty Flame, previous Dragojević's film, The Wounds deals with incredibly depressive subject of a country in a midst of war. Just like in previous film, Dragojević manages to reconcile bleakness of film's topic with black comedy. Those two films are very different, though. Pretty Village, Pretty Flame dealt with those turbulent times directly by being set in Bosnia and having protagonists with at least some grasp of what was going on. The Wounds, on the other hand, takes place in Belgrade, Serbian capital not directly affected with the war. Film's protagonists are men too young to participate in war and old enough to be affected with its moral and economic aftermath. Through the way those young men form in this turbulent period Dragojević paints devastating picture of a country that lost any semblance of decency and where each and every moral value got twisted. Some of the events in the film might seem like products of Dragojević's sick imagination, but they are actually inspired by reality. In Milošević's Serbia drug dealers, smugglers, bank robbers and murderers became media celebrities and had their crimes transformed into heroic and patriotic deeds. While the economy was collapsing and people began to lose ability to earn their living through honest means, young men were offered much more glamorous alternative of crime, violence and murder.

One of the greatest ironies of that period is in Serbia's loss of future by turning towards its mythical past. Dragojević is too perceptive and too honest to put the blame solely on Milošević and handful of corrupt politicians. Serbia, just like any country in the similar situation, could never get into such mess without masses of ordinary citizens tacitly or openly supporting the regime. Dragojević shows it through the character of Pinki's father, who is brilliantly played by Miki Manojlović. It takes nothing short of complete national humiliation for people like him to finally get their epiphany and when it happens, it is usually too late, both for them and for their children.

The Wounds is well-directed film. Dragojević paid great attention towards world cinema trends. While many critics found similarities with narrative structure of Leone's Once Upon a Time in America and Scorsese's Goodfellas, film's style drew comparisons with Boyle's Trainspotting (and the film's protagonist even looks very much like Renton). The pace is frenetic but Dragojević keeps the cohesion of the plot and leaves enough time for memorable characters to develop. Many of them are played by Dragojević's old associates like Dragan Bjelogrlić, Branka Katić and Vesna Trivalić. But the film's greatest discovery is Dušan Pekić, a teenager selected for this role among hundreds of potential candidates. Pekić, who would tragically end his life few years after his first and last role, gave haunting performance of a youth whom society left without any guidance. His Pinki is something more than simplistic young sociopath - he is just an ordinary youth perceptive enough to notice that a society around him doesn't have rules anymore; all what young men can follow are their own lust, greed and self-invented rules, observed in the film's macabre and humorous ending.

The major flaw of the film might be found in its final suggestion. In his film Dragojević gave impression that the Serbia lost any hope of gaining decent future. Some of the events that followed, like 1999 NATO bombing, confirmed his pessimism. On the other hand, even in those times, things slowly began to turn for the better. The Wounds was first post-Yugoslav Serbian film to have regular distribution in Croatian cinemas, thus symbolically marking the end of the war and violence that had brought such misery to this part of the world. Only few years later Milošević was brought down and although Serbia, just like many countries burdened with such traumas, has a long way to go before becoming "normal" country, situation at least looks much better than the bleak vision of this film. However, even when such times finally arrive, The Wounds is still going to be viewed as powerful piece of cinema.

RATING: 8/10 (+++)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.films.reviews on July 9th 2004)

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